This is an undated contributed photo of Sean J. McLaughlin, Chief U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the U.S. District Court in Erie. CONTRIBUTED/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

Chief U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin, who announced his plans to step down from Erie's federal bench earlier this week, has been hired to head the in-house legal division of Erie Indemnity and the affiliated companies of the Erie Insurance Group, Erie Indemnity announced this morning.

McLaughlin will serve as executive vice president, secretary and general counsel. Erie Indemnity Company is the attorney-in-fact for the subscribers at Erie Insurance Exchange and manages Erie Insurance Group's other companies. He succeeds James T. Tanous who retired from the company on June 30, 2013.

McLaughlin earns $174,000 a year as a federal judge. His compensation will increase considerably at Erie Insurance. As part of his hiring, he is enrolled in an incentive plan that could lead him to get as many as 9,280 shares of Erie Indemnity's publicly traded stock, which closed at $80 a share on Thursday. That would amount to $742,400 in stock under Thursday's stock price.

The company, which said the incentive plan is different from a signing bonus, said McLaughlin could get that much stock if he meets certain performance goals over the next three years.

"This employment inducement award will be made outside of the company's stockholder approved equity plans. The company's independent compensation committee approved the equity award in reliance on an employment inducement exception to shareholder approval provided by" Nasdaq rules, the company said in a release.

McLaughlin told the Erie Times-News earlier this week that he submitted his resignation to President Barack Obama in mid-July and that his last day on the bench will be Aug. 16.

The Erie Times-News first reported his resignation online on Thursday, and the story appeared in the newspaper's print edition today. McLaughlin in those stories declined to comment on the specifics of his new post, and said only that he had decided to pursue another "legal opportunity," which would be announced after Aug. 16.

Erie Indemnity early Friday instead moved up that announcement and confirmed widespread speculation that McLaughlin was leaving the court to take a position with the company.

While not naming his new job, McLaughlin said earlier this week that he believed it would be "challenging and fulfilling." He declined further comment today on the Erie Indemnity position because he remains on the bench.

McLaughlin earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in 1977 and a law degree from Georgetown Law Center in 1980. Before joining the bench, he specialized in civil litigation at Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C., in Erie.